Lecture Eight: The Gaze in Film and Art

There are many different ways in which 'gaze' is defined, a common definition being: "to look steadily and intently, especially in admiration, surprise or thought" or "a steady intent look". In terms of film theory, "The Gaze" is a technical term which is now used by theorists to refer to the ways in which viewers look upon people or subjects within any visual medium. This has also become "something of a feminist cliché", where the 'male Gaze' refers to the way in which men look at women, and the introduction of this term can be traced back to Laura Mulvey. Laura Mulvey is a British feminist film theorist who is best known for her essay 'Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema' which outlines that in film, women are typically the objects of gaze because "the control of the camera comes from factors such as the assumption of heterosexual men as the default target audience for most film genres".

Lecture Notes

We were told that there were four key forms of the Gaze (Intra-diegetic, Direct, Look of the Camera and the Spectator's Gaze), all of which could be identified in visual arts or texts. Intra-diegetic Gaze refers to a subjective point of view shot. Direct Gaze is the gaze of a person in a film or visual piece of work, looking 'out of the frame' as if looking at the viewer. Look of the Camera Gaze is the camera itself appearing to look at the characters depicted, or less metaphorically, the gaze of the film-maker. Finally, Spectator's Gaze is the viewer looking at a person or subject within the work. Additionally, other types of gaze have been constructed but are typically less well known/mentioned (for example the gaze of a bystander), which can be used to describe different situations or in terms of different types of art. For example, James Elkins offers ten different ways of looking at figurative paintings in a gallery.

It is also outlined that viewers can derive pleasure from films in two different ways. The first is Scopophilla, which is a term that refers to take sexual pleasure derived chiefly from watching others when they are naked or engaged in sexual activity. The term was introduced to help translate Freud's theories that state that pleasure in looking is instinct in childhood. The second is Identification, whereby "the subject assimilates an aspect, property, or attribute of the other and is transformed, wholly or partially, by the model the other provides", which again, the roots of this concept can be traced back to Freud.


Personally, I don't see how the psychology side of the Gaze relates to animation and my own practice, but in terms of film theory it is definitely relevant. As animators, we can use different camera angles and shots - as well as things like field of focus - to divert our viewers attention. Not only does using a variety of different camera angles make for a more interesting animation, but careful consideration of what shot to use for certain dialogues can help aid our storytelling.

The Wind Rises

The first example I thought of that touches upon one of the key forms of the Gaze is this particular clip from The Wind Rises by Studio Ghibli. At 0:14 you see the world moving through the plane's/the character's point of view. The rest of the clip also uses a variety of different shots to help establish the setting, which is beautifully drawn might I add. 

Lecture Seven: Subculture - The Meaning of Style

"Youth cultural styles begin by issuing symbolic challenges but they must end by establishing new conventions; by creating new commodities, new industries or rejuvenating old ones" 

- Hebdige, D (1979) 

Mods and Punks

This quote has perfectly summed up what was discussed in today's lecture. We took a look at subcultures in Britain and what it meant to be part of a subculture. I've discovered that different subcultures were basically defined by their style (not fashion) and the clothes they wore, the music they listened to and what they did. To me that seems to be the only differences between the different subcultures, for instance 'Mods' were typically defined by The Who, Scooters to show that they were independent, and getting high of off amphetamines and and dancing all night in clubs (to name generic examples) where as Punks for example listened to punk music (Sex Pistols, Buzzcocks, etc.), wore a wide range of clothing items including offensive t-shirts, leather jackets decorated with large spikes or metal studs, Dr. Martens boots and converse and would often dye their hair bright colours and have it spiked up or in a Mohawk. A common punk's viewpoint was to not conform and not to sell out.

Fred Perry Presents 'Subculture' - The Unique Story of British Music & Street Style

We watched the above video which explained how different subcultures came about and what they consisted of, as well as how each of them evolved and what it meant to be a part of each subculture. For instance the 'Skinhead' subculture originated in the 1960s and was influenced by West Indian 'Rude Boys' and British mods in terms of how they dressed, music and lifestyle. This died out around the early 70s, but was later re-adopted to be racially-motivated and violent. By the late 1970s the Skinhead subculture was largely viewed as the one to promote racism and neo-Nazism and white supremacy.

Other subcultures that were mentioned in the film were; Teddy boys, Mods, Punks, Rude Boy, Skinhead, Ravers (AKA Soulies), Rockers.

Lecture Notes

Influences on Animation:
John Holmstrom is an American cartoonist and writer, who is best known for being the founding editor of Punk Magazine and illustrating the covers of the Ramones albums 'Rocket to Russia' and 'Road to Ruin', The Ramones being an American punk rock band that were often cited as being the first band to define the 'punk rock' sound.

Ramones Album Covers by john Holmstrom

Though they weren't animated, you can clearly see how the punk culture has influenced the character design in these covers, or at least how the style of punk has been captured, with ripped jeans and studded jackets, with bold bright titles. 

Lecture Six: Censorship and The 'Truth'

Today's lecture reminded me a lot of a lecture I attended last year titled "photography as a document", but today had slightly different undertones. Today we explored the notions of censorship and 'truth' and how indexical qualities of photography can obscure this 'truth'. 

Lecture Notes

A good example of when a photograph's authenticity has been questioned is Robert Capa's Death of a Loyalist Soldier. It was questioned whether this was the actual point of the soldier's death or whether it was staged. Here I can refer to the lecture I sat in my first year, where there were many cases of photographers staging scenes to emphasise a deeper meaning or message, either because the actual scene wasn't a strong representation of the message they were wanting to portray or due to limitations imposed upon photojournalists' freedom of movement and not being able to go to active fronts.

Robert Capa - Death of a Loyalist Soldier (1936)

The photo had said to have been staged due to the location in which the photograph was taken. Many critics claim that they were miles away from battle lines due to the examination of the background scenery, there were also contradictions in the accepted account of the photograph; It was noted that in an interview Capa mentioned that the soldier was killed by a burst of machine-gun fire rather than a sniper riffle which is what the photograph actually suggests. It was then argued that the soldier was killed whilst staging for a photograph, and the later uncover of "The Mexican Suitcase" (boxes of negatives containing hundreds of negatives taken by Capa, Gerda Taro and David Seymour) could confirm that this was in fact the point of his death, but other stills still suggest he was killed during a staging.

Even though this is supposedly the point in which he died, it's still not a truthful depiction of the war that was occurring at the time, and we have to be careful when it comes to what we perceive as truth as it can often be obscured by a number of different factors. The following are examples that I have gathered from the lecture:

- Staging photographs and not knowing for sure what was happening at the time in which the photo was taken (example as shown above)
- The addition or the accompany of text. The title of the work or what people have to say about the piece can obscure our views of it.
- The media that has been used.

Ken Jarecke - Death of an Iraqi Soldier

This last example brings me to a good point regarding Censorship, and that the media that has been used to create a piece can change whether we feel is it acceptable or not. For example, Ken Jarecke photographed a burned-beyond-recognition Iraqi soldier in a destroyed truck. The photograph was up for being published in a newspaper which caused debate as to whether it was acceptable to use. The photograph was in colour which made it even more graphic and disturbing as the horror wasn't 'obscured by using black and white'. The photograph was deemed too sensitive and graphic for even the editors to see, and so went unseen in the US but was actually published in the UK by the London Observe which caused controversy due to the nature of the photograph. But that was what the photograph intended to do, it was to raise awareness of the horror that was occurring around us, and to get us asking "is this something we want to be involved in?". By looking at images like this we can have a more informed decision of whether we want to go to war, as a lot of information such as this is often hidden from the public, so in this case the truth is being obscured by censoring what we see and this withheld of information.

Censorship in Terms of Animation: 
Towards the end of the lecture we started to consider whether art should sit outside censorship laws and whether it is acceptable to use this media as a way to approach more controversial topics. To be in the possession or making/distribution of decent pictures of children is an offence and can get you up to ten years in jail, which is why there was a debate with Tierney Gearon's work. She often photographed her nude children and considered it the "diary of my soul". Her work was exhibited in the Saatchi Gallery in 2001 which caused a great deal of media coverage considering her children we underage and the police had to get involved on a number of occasions. It raises the question whether it should be deemed acceptable because it is art. This leads me to Michele Cournoyer's The Hat.

Le Chapeau de Michele Cournoyer

The Hat is about a young woman that works as an exotic dancer who recalls incidents from her past where she was abused by a male. The animation is very disturbing as Cournoyer is wanting you to share the pain of the woman in the story. To my understanding the animation is totally fictional but it is still tough to watch and explores themes that make most very uncomfortable, which again refers back to the question does it make it acceptable because of the way it has been addressed? 

Lecture Four: Panopticism - Institutions and Institutional Power

I found today's lecture to be very interesting, as panopticism is a concept that I haven't really heard of/thought about before and it was fascinating to realise just how much it occurs in today's society.

Lecture Notes

The lecture started by outlining The Great Confinement that occurred in the late 1600s. Individuals were judged on how useful they were and how much of a role they had in society and if they were deemed useless they were locked away in 'Houses of Correction' were they were made to work, and would be beaten if they didn't. These houses were usually filled with homeless people, criminals and the unemployed. This lead to the birth of the Asylum, where individuals were made useful for society.

This is where Foucault comes into play. Michel Foucault (1926-1984) wanted to legitimise the practices of hospitals and Doctors. He saw asylums and prisons to affect human beings in a way that altered their consciousness and internalised our responsibility and that rationalising institutions teach us to control our behaviours (to self regulate).

Panopticon Design

Jeremy Bentham proposed the design of a building called the Panopticon in 1791. Though none were built during his own time, the Panopticon was designed so that the individuals/inmates would be situated in their own cubicles or sections that lined the outside wall. They would not be able to see anybody else in other sections, but instead could look forward at 'the face of the institution', whether this be a prison guard, a doctor, a teacher. It took the common idea of a dungeon where prisoners would be locked away in the darkness and out of sight, and did the exact opposite; the inmates would be on show and would be monitored by the observation tower that was in the middle of the Panopticon.
The idea was that you would change your behaviour as you would always be watched, meaning you would be spotted if you acted out of line and potentially punished for it. The inmate would be induced to a state of conscious and permanent visibility that would assure the automatic functioning of power.

Foucault believed this to be a metaphor for society, and how we are always being watched by those in power or with authority. He stated that "the Panopticon is a model of how modern society organises its knowledge, its power, its surveillance of bodies, its training of bodies". To begin with I didn't fully understand where he was coming from, and it was only until we looked at how Panopticism occurs in today's times that I could see his point. Panopticon is everywhere in today's society. Open plan offices is a good example of this as creating this open space without cubicles can increase productivity as you are too scared to waste time and slack off as you will be caught. But then it also occurs in places were you aren't even expected to work, but to behave, for example in bars. In traditional pubs it was common to have booths that were tucked away so you could have privacy, but it is becoming more popular for the bar to be more open plan with the bar being the centre of the space, encouraging you to behave differently even if you aren't even being watched by the bar staff. Almost all public spaces are monitored by CCTV now too, and yes this may be for security reasons, but when the cameras are visible it is more likely than not that we will behave differently when in the presence of them because we know we are being watched, whether we are or not.
This greatly backs up Foucault's point, especially as in the Panopticon's observation tower there wasn't always a guard on duty. The inmates would not have been aware of this fact as the blinds would be drawn on the windows, but just the presence of the tower alone and the idea that there might be someone of power in there was enough to change their behaviour and 'correct them'.

Now initially I don't see how this relates directly to animation, but it definitely influences my practice and my studies. There is even an trace of panopticism in the lectures I attend. The lecturer is not forcing me to attend or to listen - I generally go because I'm interested in what there is to be said - but instead it is ourselves that are conformed, even the space and the layout of the lecture hall encourages us to watch.

Lecture Three: Identity

In today's lecture we considered the historical conceptions of identity and how identity is viewed today, especially in the digital domain. We started by looking at the different phases of identity, these being Pre-modern, Modern and Post-modern. Pre-modern conceptions suggest that personal identity is stable and is defined by long standing roles, for example marriage, the church, work ete, whereas modern and post-modern views suggest that you are able to choose your identity and that it is constructed out of the discourses that are available to you.

Lecture Notes

We also looked briefly into Physiognomy and how this relates to identity. Physiognomy is the assessment of someone's personality or character based on their appearence, most commonly the face. This practice was accepted by ancient Greek philosophers but was revived and popularised by Johann Kaspar Lavater from 1775. He introduced the idea that this related to specific character traits rather than general types. Similarly Cesare Lombroso proposed the theory of positivist/anthropological criminology which states that criminal tendancies can be inherited, and that "born criminals" can be identified by physical defects and characteristics.

This can relate strongly to stereotyping. A great example of this is Tracey Emin's "Everyone I Have Ever Slept With (1963-1995)". The piece was a tent that was lined with appliqued names of everyone she had ever slept with, and it is often misinterpreted as being a euphemism where the tent is indicating all of her sexual partners. At a first glance many would shame her for sleeping around as they would judge the piece on it's face value before taking a look inside and finding out what the work is actually about. Only a select few of the names mentioned in the tent she has sexual relations with, the rest are a collection of family and friends, merely people she has SHARED a bed with and slept alongside.

Tracey Emin - Everyone I Have Ever Slept With

I think these points are commonly addressed when it comes to character design in Animation. Designers *sometimes* tend to play on stereotypes when designing characters. For example, intelligent characters tend to have similar characteristics, for instance they will be depicted with large heads and faces that are very "straight" whereas "dumb" characters tend to be the opposite. They will be depicted with faces that tend to slant back, and have more asymmetric features. A good example of this is Pinky and the Brain. The two characters are laboratory mice who live in a cage in a research facility. Brain is constantly trying to take over the world, thought his plans fall through due to Pinky's idiocy (usually)

Pinky (Left) and the Brain (Right)

This example is clearly playing n stereotypes. The clever character has a large head and is generally quite stern looking, where as the "idiot" looks goofy and feeble-minded.

Lecture Two: The Flipped Classroom

The Flipped Classroom is a model of teaching that focuses on allowing the student to take charge of their own learning. The student is the centre of the model rather than the teacher, and this allows the students to explore and form their own answers to their own questions. This flipped model allows for students to explore topics in greater depth, as the flow of conversation and debate is not being controlled by the Teacher which can create more meaningful learning opportunities. The Teacher will be there to deliver content that the students can use how so they please (perhaps in the form of activities or video lessons).

Lecture Notes

But is this enough? Jacques Ranciere (b. 1940), a French philosopher born into the french revolution in May 1968, argued the role of the teacher and challenged their role in the classroom, stating that they need the students more than what they needed the teacher. In his book "The Ignorant Schoolmaster: Five Lessons in Intellectual Emancipation" he tells the story of how Joseph Jacotot was sent to the netherlands to teach french to the students, not knowing a word of Flemish. They were unable to communicate to one another as the students didn't speak any french, so he had given the students two copies of Fenelon's "Télémaque", one in Flemish and one that had been recently translated into French. The students were able to learn fluent french by working together and finding the relationship between the two languages/texts, with no input from the teacher other than the fact he had given them the text.
From this, Ranciere challenged the readers to consider the role of the teacher, and that we should consider the premise that we are all of equal intelligence and that this should be a starting point rather than a destination. The educator isn't neccesary if the group of students have a central focus.

The Flipped Classroom model definitely relates to my current practice. As a group we are given a brief to work with and our tutors are there for help if needed, but on the whole our projects and study are very self-driven. In Animation we are expected to solve our own problems and create work that fits the brief/our clients proposal. Jacques Ranciere's points are very interesting, and to some degree I agree with what he says. I think we have the intellectual capability to become educated without the role of an educator, but personally I think this role is necessary for my line of practice. I have a lot of creative freedom even with the role of a tutor, but they are there to guide me on what it is I need to do in order to succeed, just as it would be like if I was working on a commision piece.

Lecture One: Research and Epistemology

The goal of today's lecture was to gain a common understanding of what is meant by the term 'research', and how we could then refer to this term in our future CoP lectures, seminars and studio sessions.

Lecture Notes

It's often thought that research is the process of finding out new facts and knowledge, which it is, but it isn't just limited to this. In a creative practice sense it can also refer to learning new processes, experimentation to find out what things work and what doesn't and problem solving. So research doesn't always have to be right and it is okay to embrace failure, as this will strengthen our knowledge for what will work in the future. It will promote success.

There are many different ways in which you can research, whether this be reading books at the library or conducting experiments/surveys, but all methods are going to produce different types of data. The main for types of data being; Primary, Secondary, Quantitative and Qualitative.

Primary and Secondary data refers to the source in which the data was received. If it is Primary this means that the data was developed or collected/generated and does not yet exist, where as if it is secondary the data has already been collected. For example you could take statitisics from an online source, or read up on past experiments.
Quantitative and Qualitative refers to the type of data that is being collected/used. Quantitative refers to data that can be measured, whether this be numbers, facts, figures or statistics, where as Qualitative is more subjective and can involve a person's beliefs or opinions. Qualitative isn't always measured.

This data will mean nothing to us if we don't process it. By processing data we can take information from the results to add to our existing knowledge of the person receiving it. This can involve simply taking in information we have researched in a way that we can understand, or it can be taking it that step further by investigating for solutions to questions that may have been generated. It could also involve applying this knowledge to our practice to see HOW this will work, or even WHERE this information can apply. This is what we mean by the term Epistemology. Epistemology distinguishes between HOW we can KNOW something, and whether it is knowing that, how or where.

Research is always going to be subjective to the individual, as when we research we set out to find out things we don't know making us the centre of our own research. The most important thing to remember is to START ANYWHERE and to make it relevant to our own practice in a way that we are going to understand it, and gain experience/knowledge.

"Research is what I'm doing when I don't know what I'm doing" 

- Wernher von Braun.

Lecture 11: Postmodernism

I barely understood what modernism meant, so when it came to listening to a lecture on postmodernism I was well and truly lost. I have done further reading and research into this topic, and I'm still confused as to what postmodernism is. I get the impression that postmodernism occurred after the modernist movement, and consisted of escaping the "double-mindedness of Modernism by being thorough in its criticism by extending it to religion as well as theology" according to J. M. Thompson.

Postmodernism began as a reaction to Modernists attempts to reduce things to their simplest and purest forms. Postmodernists would go that bit further and questioned everything, which would usually involve deconstructing work. A good example of this is Andy Warhol's Campbell's Soup Cans. He took an everyday object and changed it's context by painting it and having it hung in an art gallery. He then went on to make many copies of his work, making the art just as mass produced as the supposed "artless" can.

Andy Warhol - Campbell's Soup Cans

Postmodernism is also the idea that absolutes don't exist, and that we aren't bound to what it "right" or "moral" because your truths and beliefs are true to you, and you alone, so rather than saying "this is the correct way to do things" like modernists were, postmodernists instead said "on whose authority?"

Lecture 9: The History of Animation

I've already talked about this lecture in great detail as part of my research for a studio brief, so instead of repeating myself and explaining again how Animation has developed over the years, I am simply going to select a couple of Animations that I find to be extremely important in the Animation world.

Windsor McCay 1914 - Gertie the Dinosaur

Gertie the Dinosaur isn't the first ever cartoon despite what some believe, but it definitely was the first to bring a character to life that had such an appealing personality. It was also the first animation to use mechanical processes, such as key framing and registration marks on tracing paper and this animation actually influenced Animators such as the Fleischer Brothers and Walt Disney to animate.

Windsor McCay 1918 - The Sinking of the Lusitania

McCay later went on to produce The Sinking of the Lusitania. The Animation was a staggering 27000 frames long, and was the longest animated film at the time of it's release. The film was also the first serious/dramatic work of animation that depicted the Lusitania sinking during WW1. McCay wonderfully demonstrated animation's potential, and that it could be used to inform and document rather than simply to entertain.

Disney 1929 - The Skeleton Dance

The Skeleton Dance by Disney was a short produced as part of the Silly Symphonies series and it is credited for being the first animation to use non-post-sync sound and is arguably the first ever music video as the animation was developed to fit around a piece of music composed by Carl Stallings.

Lecture 10: Modernity and Modernism

I'm not quite sure what to think about today's lecture. It was all about Modernism and Modernity, how it came about and what it is, and I'm not sure I fully understand it. I have managed to grasp the main concept of what Modernism is, but I have come to realise that it is so much more complex than what I originally thought it was.

John Ruskin was the first to use "modern" to describe visual communication, and it generally meant to be modern you were more sophisticated and/or stylish. More edgy. This meant that Art and paintings could be classed as "modern", but this didn't always mean that they were modernist. For example, Ruskin described Holman Hunt's "Hireling Shepard" (1851) as modern, as it didn't follow the norm of classical paints. The colours Hunt used were much brighter and contrasted with one another, something that classical paintings didn't typically do.

Hireling Shepard (1851) - William Holman Hunt

Moderism didn't only occur in paintings however, cities were often effected by modern change too, and it is said that modernism is inseparable from the city as this is where modernism happens. Paris is a great example of this as it was considered to be the most modern city of the 19th century. Take the Eiffel Tower for example. When it was first built in 1887-1889 it wasn't very popular, as it wasn't very visually pleasing and it dominated the city and it's old buildings. But modernist artists didn't focus on the style, but more of the philosophy behind the piece, and wanting to emerge from the subjective responses of artists and designers.
George-Eugene Haussmann was instructed by Napoleon III to redesign Paris, and bring more air and light to the center of the city. This meant that a lot of the narrow streets were demolished throughout the years of 1853 to 1870, to make way for new buildings that Napoleon commissioned. Again, not many approved of this at the time, because many were in favour of the narrow spaces as this made it easier to police.

Modernism in Animation
Gerald McBoing-Boing is a brilliant example of a modern animation. United Productions of America (UPA) adapted Dr. Seuss' story that had originally appeared on a children's record, about a boy who could only speak using sound effects. UPA wanted to break away from the strict animation methods that Disney were setting/producing, and step away from making animations that were high in realism. They felt this was very limiting, and thought that animations didn't have to "obey the rules of the real world" and proceeded to experiment with different styles.

Gerald McBoing-Boing (1951)

Lecture 7: Advertising

I actually wasn't here for this lecture as I was at BAF, and to be honest I am quite disappointed because looking back at the slides it looked like it was going to be very interesting.

The lecture was all about Advertising, and whether we could class it as prostitution. As I've already said, I wasn't there so I'm unsure what was said on this subject and why this is may be a valid view point, but what I do know is that advertising is often considered to be a tool that changes values within a society as well as possibly change our perception of what we may need. I believe it to be successful of doing this because of how big advertising actually is. It's literally everywhere; billboards, posters, TV, the internet. Because of this and the fact that it is persistent, it's very hard to escape from it, which is why I deem it to be successful. Not just that, but there are also many different types and styles of adverts that can reach out to numerous audiences depending on what it is they're trying to sell or say.

Due to there being a variety of different styles and content, audiences generally have mixed opinions. A good example of what I mean is that some advertisements are often accused of being sexist, as they treat people as cultural stereotypes of their sex...

This being a good example

...Where as some people may not be effected by this (I know personally it doesn't bother me as I can see the humour in the advertisement), others maybe offended by it. So I can't understand why a company would want to use themes like this. Yes, people are going to be talking about the product or message because it has caused an uproar due to it's advertisement being offensive, but surely this will make people think negatively about the product. I guess it all just depends on the values and view points at the time of the advert. It is likely that this advertisement was made at a time when a vast majority of women were "typical housewives", so it was less likely to offend, but even so. It baffles me.

Even though advertising can change the values of an audience and it can sometimes be considered to be sexist and offensive, it isn't all negative. Advertising can be used as a powerful art form, and it can be entertaining and enlightening.

So yeah, advertising.

Lecture 6: Chronologies: Communication and Mass Media.

Yet again, I have sat through another lecture that I didn't understand. I understood that we were talking about graphics design and mass media & communication, but other than that a lot of the information just went over my head because I didn't really see the relevance of a lot of the points that were put forward. However there was one point raised that I thought was very interesting which was "By adding text to fine art does this instantly make it graphics design or advertising?". I'm very disappointed that we didn't look at this point in more detail because I thought this had the potential to be a very interesting discussion. Instead we talked about things I didn't quite understand.

John Everett Millais - Bubbles (1886) and Pears Soap advertisement

Picking up on the fine line between Fine art and Advertisement point, this is an example that was presented to us. On the left we have the original painting called Bubbles by John Everett and Millais in 1886 and on the right we have the same image, but "Pears Soap" has been added to it to advertise the product. Now the images are exactly the same but the only difference is the text, and this has completely changed the purpose of piece, so we could argue that there definitely is a fine line between the two subjects.

Other than that I don't really know what else there is for me to say, other than graphic design is a good way of mass communicating as we are all exposed to art everyday in some form or another, and it's rather easy to get work out there, especially that we now have the internet.

Lecture 5: MONK RHYMES WITH FUNK.

Finally! A lecture that I have understood!

Today's lecture title - well actually it had three because greedy - was Pictures at Work / Illusion in Action / Emotional Experience of Image.

So basically Illustration.

Illustration truly is a powerful form of communication, and is so much more than "just a drawing". It is the art of strategic image making, and conveys meaning or concept by using aesthetic and formal qualities. The way it communicates it's message depends on it's "tone of voice", and what I mean by this is how it jumps out at us and how it "feels". Whether it is elegant and sophisticated, loud, bold and friendly, innocent, bleek and sad. Because illustration can convey so many different emotions and meanings, there really isn't anywhere it can't be used, and can often put out a message more effectively than words. With illustration you can attach your own meanings, as there is room for interpretation and there is often the chance for you to relate images to yourself. I think that's why illustration is so powerful, because it can have an emotional impact and it can convey messages without actually saying anything or using words. 

Lecture 4: Chronologies and Print

With like the majority of the information I receive in lectures, I'm not sure what to do with the very little I learnt in today's lecture. Not saying that it was bad or wasn't interesting, I'm just very confused with what I have been told. The gist of what I got was that Print was a more effective way of communicating over speech, and this was demonstrated by a large scale game of "Chinese Whispers". A message was passed around throughout so many people that it eventually got distorted and we ended up with information that was different to what was originally passed out. Whereas printed messages don't have the ability to distort, so everyone is going to get the same message without confusion. Because of this we can assume that Print and documentation & communication is correct and factual. There is no tone of voice and there is "no way" for the message to change.

I also got from the lecture that the invention of the Linotype Machine was a huge thing. Before Lino printing newspapers would be less than 8 pages long because of the length of time it took to create them. The Linotype allowed for people to document instantly, allowing for information to be accurate. There wasn't time for the information to be passed around and become distorted.

This is the part of the lecture that I got really confused at, simply because I know nothing about Politics, and things like democracy, consumerism and propagandas. But basically I think print became a method of manipulating people, especially around the time of the war. People great in wealth and authority would have access to equipment and so they could have a massive impact, and they did. They were able to produce posters that attempted to recruit individuals, in a light that made it seem that the war was going to be a great thing. They were able to manipulate people as people were still under the impression  that printed information must be true, whereas now-a-days we are more skeptical, especially with people being able to post what they like on social media sites, etc.

To summarise, I realise that Print was/is a very powerful invention and that we can take print to be more factual and correct than information that is just passed around.

Lecture 3: A History of Type

Today's CoP Lecture was all about Typography. I was told about the history of Typography and how it evolved, and I also learnt that there are different "type families". These include Old Style, Tradtional, Modern, Humanist, Swiss Modern/Bauhaus and Contemporary.

I'm not quite sure what to think of today's lecture. I was bored to death by a good percentage of the talk (sorry), but then again there were parts of it that I found really interesting. For instance, Helvetica is a font that was developed in 1957 by a man called Max Meidinger and that the aim of the design was to create a neutral typeface with great clarity and no meaning its form, and because of this is could be used on a wider variety of signage. Microsoft released "Arial" 25 years later (the maximum time that a design is protected by intellectual property before it lapses), "ripping off" Meidinger's design.
I also never realised that different fonts have different meanings and history behind them (trying not to sound too ignorant). I knew that different typefaces could be used for different purposes, and some were more appropriate for some jobs than others, but didn't realise they had meaning.

I think it might be nice to read a bit more into typography, because I think it has the potential to be quite interesting to me, especially now I have learnt it's more that just letters presented differently. I still don't know a great deal, but I do know to stay clear of Comic Sans.

Lecture 2: Visual Literacy

I'm not going to lie, I had next to zero knowledge when it came to Visual Literacy, I'd never even heard the two words used together in a sentence before. The more I listened though, the more I noticed that I DID know about it but just didn't realise it. It was nice to learn about the different types (i.e. visual synecdoche, metonym and metaphor) but I'm not fully sure what to do with this newly acquired information. Then again, the lecture did make me think about the importance of my target audience, and that different signs, symbols and images can be interpreted differently depending on how they are presented and the cultural understanding of said things, so I can bare this in mind when I am planning out animations.